The SCOR-A at LSU is involved in clinical and experimental studies related to the early natural history of Atherosclerosis and Essential Hypertension. The clinical research includes 5,000 children in the Bogalusa Heart Study, a biracial population under examination for extensive risk factor data. The study follows an epidemiologic design which is both cross-sectional and longitudinal. Anthropometric parameters, blood pressure, serum lipids and lipoproteins, reported smoking, and blood glucose are being observed. An interrelationship of these variables shows clustering of multiple risk factor variables beginning in older children. Extrapolation from adult studies, e.g., Framingham, suggests we can detect children with high or low risk for cardiovascular disease. Time-course changes of these variables indicate a high correlation of values from one year to the next indicating a significant "tracking" is occurring. Children tend to persist in their respective ranks. Special sub-studies related to blood pressure and serum lipoprotein levels are in progress. Interesting bi-racial differences are suggesting different biological mechanisms are involved in changes of risk factor variables. Black children seem programmed for hypertension and white males show significant lipid changes contributing to the early development of coronary artery disease. Experimental research on a nutritional model in non-human primates produced hyperlipoproteinemia and hypertension. In this model, an influence of sucrose on hypercholesterolemia and an accentuation of blood pressure has been noted. Other studies of the chemistry of the arterial wall have characterized two different proteoglycans which are significantly different from the well-characterized chondromucoprotein. Further studies on proteoglycans as they may interact with fibrous macromolecules are under investigation.